


Desperation and Band-Aids

by NerdsNeedLoveToo



Category: Hit the Floor (TV)
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Drabble, M/M, Sucky childhoods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-18
Updated: 2018-04-18
Packaged: 2019-04-24 12:02:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14355048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NerdsNeedLoveToo/pseuds/NerdsNeedLoveToo
Summary: Jude and Zero are more alike than most think. Both are lost boys hiding away from the world.





	Desperation and Band-Aids

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own any part of the show Hit the Floor or its characters. I'm just borrowing them for a little while.

Desperation makes motives for every man.

When he was ten and they decided Laura needed to be somewhere else, young Gideon had punched and clawed to keep them together. Later, he’d been beaten for it and wept. What little remained of his childhood died that day in an unmarked grave behind fists. Out of the ashes rose a snarling stranger, with a closed heart, and uncompromising disdain.

He’d never had food to horde, so he horded emotions – stuffed them down and locked them up. He no longer had love to have, so he refused to give love too. Aging through an overburdened system, all but lost and forgotten, he’d survived on a diet of anger and desperation.

That very desperation became an addictive and self-fulfilling prophecy. His world became smaller and smaller over time, feeding lies of worthlessness to the little boy within. Anger kept that little boy alive – how often had he contemplated simply ceasing? Then been so very afraid someone would see the deep, dark private places he hid so carefully, and laugh? But that anger and disdain gave him purpose, because that little boy didn’t want to die. He wanted to be loved. But the world hurt so so bad.

When Zero rose from the ashes, he built great walls to keep Gideon safe. Nothing could mar them. Mark them. Crumble them.

Until Jude.

Another little boy hidden behind walls. Another little boy all but forgotten, wondering what he did wrong.

Like little boys, so desperate to be loved, they cling. And like lost souls, they push away. Often uncomfortable. Often battling anger. But like kindred souls they seek nothing more than to kiss away the pain and make it all better. Because behind those shadowed walls that no one else saw, the boys recognized each other. Behind those walls, they fixed each other.

Like a band-aid that said, “I love you, stupid.”


End file.
